Are the stars aligning just right? (in a bad way)

[TGS]

By my count we're well over 10 police officers shot today alone across the country.

[Coyotesfan97]

By my count we're well over 10 police officers shot today alone across the country.

Phoenix had nine injured today. One is in serious condition. Four are stable and four were hit by bullet shrapnel but stayed at the scene. Suspect is dead. He apparently killed a woman and ambushed the first Officer on scene.

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/south-phoenix-shooting-leaves-9-officers-hurt-barricaded-suspect-and-woman-dead

[jnc36rcpd]

Two Frederick City Police shot and wounded in Maryland this afternoon. Both will be OK. Suspect shot and wounded.

[RevolverJIM]

Any one who doesn't recognize that there is a war going on just isn't awake.

[Borderland]

Any one who doesn't recognize that there is a war going on just isn't awake.

I'm just absolutely dumbfounded by the carnage that pops up in the news everyday. The front line are the police. They don't seem to be winning battle. There was a time when the police were respected. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Times change I guess.

[DDTSGM]

I think we are approaching prohibition era numbers of officers feloniously slain.

I think we should also be aware that when you are comparing officer feloniously killed data to examine whether one era, i.e. prohibition or the VN protest era, was more dangerous than toady, it is important to realize that improvements such as vests, portable radios, cell phones, trauma center, paramedics, etc. ensure that many officers who survive felonious assaults today would have likely died two or three decades ago.

You'd have to be obtuse to state that in the last two years, policing, especially in metropolitan areas, has not become increasingly dangerous, it has.

[Erick Gelhaus]

It's ugly out there. It'll get worse. And it's happening at a time with the message is very counter to street cops & road deputies being pro-active in contacting crooks & using enough force soon enough.

[jnc36rcpd]

The Washington Post just had another one of their hit pieces on law enforcement lamenting that U.S. police had killed so many people last year and that the reforms hadn't taken. Not surprisingly, there was no mention of the increase in murders and assaults on LEO's.

[Jeff22]

I started as a cop in 1981. That year, there were 108 law enforcement officers murdered.

In 2021 there were 70.

By comparison, in 1927 there were 215 murdered.

Suicide, vehicle accidents and COVID are the causes of most officer deaths at this time.

[HCM]

I started as a cop in 1981. That year, there were 108 law enforcement officers murdered.

In 2021 there were 70.

By comparison, in 1927 there were 215 murdered.

Suicide, vehicle accidents and COVID are the causes of most officer deaths at this time.

To get a true picture you need to look at both officers killed and officers assaulted.

Not that this generation is any better than yours, but they have advantages, like advances in communications and emergency medical care which have resulted in higher survival rates for both LE and the general public when shot/stabbed etc. The increased use of body armor and TCCC training /IFAKs also accounts for some of the increase survival rates for LE.

[Jeff22]

Better training today for certain. (I’ve only been retired since August and that might be temporary)

I was fortunate to begin my career about the time the “Officer Survival” training really took off, and I went to the seminars and read all the books. (I went to officer survival seminars from Street Cop Training and Calibre Press last year in fact)

Body armor (already commonly worn where I was when I started) and better radio communications are a big factor too.

And I agree, total number of assaults is a critical statistic.

[blues]

This is a bad road we're on. I may be retired, but I will never pass by an officer in need if I come upon one.

[JohnO]

The same fools who want to demonize and defund them will call on them in a heartbeat when in need.

https://thesaltcollective.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/28279906_1597811783665534_6201225212238057309_n-476x270.jpg

[joshs]

Outgrouping sucks. Whether it’s done on the basis of race, religion, sexual preference, gender identity, or, in this case, profession. The amount of anti-LE rhetoric was bound to normalize violence against same. It disgusts me to see that same rhetoric becoming more mainstream in parts of the pro-gun world. It’s one thing to disagree with particular policies and how they affect gun owners, but it’s entirely another to attempt to turn gun owners against LE entirely over those policy disagreements. Some of the best, most pro-freedom people I’ve met through shooting or in the industry are LE or former LE.

Stay safe.

[willie]

Negative rhetoric has emboldened three groups among us. They are the feeble minded; the violent; and that group composed of the feeble minded who are violent. Sadly, some leaders continue to reinforce the message that's often printed on a race card.

[HCM]

The same fools who want to demonize and defund them will call on them in a heartbeat when in need.

https://thesaltcollective.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/28279906_1597811783665534_6201225212238057309_n-476x270.jpg

It is part of a larger strategy to destabilize society so it can be re-made pursuant to “their” vision.

[blues]

double tap

[blues]

Negative rhetoric has emboldened three groups among us. They are the feeble minded; the violent; and that group composed of the feeble minded who are violent. Sadly, some leaders continue to reinforce the message that's often printed on a race card.

Some of whom are notably feeble-minded.

[AMC]

It is part of a larger strategy to destabilize society so it can be re-made pursuant to “their” vision.

I think this touches on the central question of the OP. 'Stars Aligning' again implies a naturally occurring, random series of events. I think "Seeds planted finally bearing fruit" is a more apt metaphor.

[Joe in PNG]

It is part of a larger strategy to destabilize society so it can be re-made pursuant to “their” vision.

Yep. But, I suspect the radicals aren't going to get the long term end result their 19th Century Pseudoscientific Economic Cargo Cult tells them they're going to get.

The over-credentialed, out of touch fools, inevitably influential members of the Democratic Party actually think that if they erase the Thin Blue Line, the Proletariat will rise up, overthrow the Bourgeois, and make AOC the Dear Leader of the People's Democratic Socialist States of America.

Need I mention that there's a Final Boss level of utter pig ignorance & stupidity that only the people with expensive degrees from the Best Schools can achieve? People with massive influence on how things are run, or even those who are running things.

The unfortunate and unintended end to their ignorant fooling around with the social contract may well be a return to lynch mobs or worse.

[blues]

removed...

[DDTSGM]

Better training today for certain. (I’ve only been retired since August and that might be temporary)

Before reading what follows, understand that each officer's loss diminishes us as a society. Additionally, sometimes officers are victims of incorrect information, irrational ambushes, and in some cases do everything correct and still get injured or killed.

I agree, the training is better, but are officers better at using it, or is technology saving their lives as I mentioned in an earlier post?

If you look at the short summaries provided in the LEOKA (https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/2019/resource-pages/summaries-officers-feloniously-killed) and redact the weapon data and replace with 'handgun' or 'rifle' for the current year, and then go back 40 years and do the same, you wouldn't be able to tell which ones were the newer and which were the older.

Point being, officers are killed in the same circumstances year after year. In many circumstances it is not a training deficiency as much as it is simply failing to follow the basic rules of the profession.

Police trainers have been pointing this out since at least 1976 when the book 'officer down, code three' by Pierce Brooks, of Onion Field fame, was written.

[Robert Mitchum]

This is a bad road we're on. I may be retired, but I will never pass by an officer in need if I come upon one.

I have helped Police Officers in Street fights a few times when I worked Corrections.
My hand to God. I would not hesitate one second if it came up now in my retired life.

[MistWolf]

It is part of a larger strategy to destabilize society so it can be re-made pursuant to “their” vision.

and take law enforcement out of the hands of the local jurisdictions and place it in the hands of the Feds to create a national police force.

[UNM1136]

It looks like the one that shot the NMSP officer was wanted on a probation violation from a plea he took after I arrested him...

Charges were initially downgraded from Agg Assault Peace Officer/Deadly Weapon after the pair were caught doing a burglary, and a pursuit hitting 80ish mph on city streets with shots fired from a stolen car...while on probation for previous felonies, also involving stolen cars and Aggravated (felony) Fleeing. Took a canine to find and arrest the girlfriend that night when she fled the stop. She got a bit farther than he did, but not much. The dispatcher ride along from that night still talks about it. There have been no more dispatcher ride alongs...

Looks like he pled guilty for 1 year jail, with 291 days presentencing credit,1 year parole, 5 years supervised probation...

Arrested 2019, pled 6/20, and I count three probation revocations and reinstatements of probation, with several sentencing hearings for those violations, if I read the court record right. Final warrant was 4/21. It could be the the probation violation was for the three previous cases that were consolidated for the plea. I just don't know.

(I don't think I am doxxing myself; me and an officer from another agency made the physical arrest but I was not the Case Agent, nor the booking officer. My name does not seem to appear in any of the available court records. Someone would have to go to a lot of trouble to ID me from the public record, knowing who to call and what to look at. And even then, it is a public record, publically available since the arrest. Any one who has access to the full case files already have my info.)

pat